So I shared a Marlon James Facebook post about Brock Turner and racial bias in media the other day and then added a rant of my own after it. Since it basically turned into a mini-diatribe, figured I might as well post it here, too. So ya’ll know I’m still alive.

Hope at least one of the comments somehow inspires you to take some form of action on these issues. Even if it’s just bringing them up incessantly from here on out……

Thanks to Marlon for the original stir-the-pot comment. We need this in everybody’s mouth. I don’t care if it sounds different from different mouths–if it’s in agreement that justice system reform is urgent, I am behind it.

Marlon James’s original comment:

“So quite a few have noted that when it comes to people like this shithole, the media goes all Brady Bunch on the pic, while always searching for the most “thuggish” if it’s a black person, even if that person is the victim. I agree on the motive, but believe it’s up to us to control the meaning. So yeah, I don’t want the mugshot, I WANT this pic. So thank you mainstream media, because I want this pic to sink in, and I want every woman in college to study the shit out of it. I want people to look at a pic like this, at people who look like this, and think, rapist.”

My repost diatribe:

“Honestly, calling a person a “shithole” or a “human piece of sh-t” (the NY Daily News called this young man the second one)…….I’m just not trying to be here for that, no matter what they’ve done. But I’m going to share this post anyways. Partially, because the rest of the sentiment it’s expressing is completely true: we have clear racial mythologies for people who do things like rape other unconscious people (which is what this person, Brock Turner, did last year). Partially, because it’s absolutely true that–in so many ways beyond just what media photo is reproduced everywhere–people of color are portrayed in demonic and demoralizing and guilt-suggesting imagery (think hand cuffs and orange jump suits and angry facial expressions). Whereas here, with young Brock, we have yet another perfect example of how innocuously a white convicted rapist is represented (over and over and over). But beyond those things, I want to share this post simply to bring attention to….yet again……the thing so many have been trying to bring attention to for so long that still–as this case makes so clear–is an urgent urgent urgent crisis in our culture. That’s right, we’re talking about SENTENCING DISPARITY!!!!!!

Look, if how a rapist were represented in media coverage and SENTENCING DISPARITY didn’t go so hand in hand, I probably wouldn’t beef about it…..or at least not as much. And I’m not even trying to say that it’s the main cause of SENTENCING DISPARITY, or anything crazy like that. What I’m saying is we all really really really do need to take a good, long look at this picture because somehow the image of this skinny white college kid has been conflated with “he will not be a danger to others” (Judge Aaron Persky’s own words). That is a lie. That is false. That–and I mean this, I’m not trying to be clever or sassy–that is straight up mentally ill. A culture that can accept that statement is a culture which has blown up all reason and logic. It is a culture being torn apart by mental illness. This person was found raping an unconscious young woman. What is it about him, exactly, that is suggesting to a man with a law degree that he will not be a danger to others? That’s only a rhetorical question because you and I already know exactly what the answer is.

What the answers are.

I’m not trying to say I want to see Brock Turner stoned. I’m not trying to say he deserves the death penalty. I’m not even trying to say he deserves a longer prison sentence…….but that’s only because I’m not trying to talk about Brock Turner in this post. I’m not trying to say jack about Brock Turner. I’m trying to say that, if we are going to show compassion to people who commit monstrous acts, we need to stop doing so BASED ON THEIR RACE, SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS OR ANY OTHER ARBITRARY CULTURAL FACTOR THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ISSUE. And, furthermore, we need to do so in much more responsible ways than was done in the case here of Brock Turner.

Honestly, I’m all for conversations that start with sentences like “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him” (which Judge Persky also said of Turner).

Well, yeah. Um….affirmative. Accurate.

This should not be a revelation, Judge Persky–this is basically the whole entire ostensible “point” of prison. Amazing to me that a judge can publicly say something like that and be allowed to stay in his position. Regardless, I’m all for noting the truth and accuracy in that statement. But if we’re going to start looking at how being put through our hellacious “corrections” system so often results in irreparably destroying human lives, rather than actually rehabilitating them, let’s not do this in clear racially & socioeconomically opportunistic ways. Let’s talk about how incidences where a person of color getting a sentence literally 3000% longer than Brock Turner’s (see here: http://www.nydailynews.com/…/king-brock-turner-cory-batey-s…) are so utterly common that, the only reason why this one I’ve linked to is unusual is because it’s appearing in a news article pointing out its unfairness. That’s it.

Our system is jacked. That much seems clear, at least, to very many people. But if we only recognize that when a white kid from the suburbs rapes someone, we are only exploiting it’s jackedness. We are exponentially multiplying its jackedness through that.

Let’s see if we can talk about something real from this whole tragedy: that black, brown and indigenous Americans are typically punished to the fullest extent of the law at EVERY ACCESS POINT THE LAW HAS WITH THEM (the pulled-over car, the arrest, the sentencing, etc) and that white Americans are still so very very very very often given more grace and mercy in these circumstances that it seems potentially irresponsible of those who “uphold” the law to the rest of us watching from the sidelines.

That’s what I want. Especially if you are white, that’s what I want from you today. I want you enraged at this chronic, toxic arrangement in our legal system. And i want you talking about it, posting about it and and bringing it up at light-hearted parties until ALL of us (and not just some of us) can’t bear how stupid it makes us feel as a society and finally change it, end it, make it an embarrassing memory that we use to teach our great grand kids just how bad it can get, if you let it.

My deepest sympathies to Brock Turner’s victim and her family (who seems to be an unusually amazing person, based on the statement you can read here: http://www.nydailynews.com/…/king-rapist-brock-turner-judge…). My deepest sympathies to the countless lives beyond hers that have been brutally affected by sexual assault (which is pretty much everyone you’ve ever met, if you’re woke).

And, without taking away from that, my deepest sympathies to those whose lives have been ravaged by the racist, classist, broken corrections system that has evolved and descended from the racist values America was founded on. My deepest sympathies to you, your families and all of your loved ones.

Dear facebook friend of mine who made it to the bottom of this post,

You have a voice, and it will be beautiful if the truth comes from it.